tests

we all test ourselves, sometimes we don't know it some days we can't avoid it....how do you test yourself? is it getting up every day to go to that job that's killing you?you know the one, sucking in carcinogens and all you can do is hold your breath and pray. bad i know, but hey you got two cars and a mortgage and one income... or do you get up and talk to people that you fear will laugh at you? Maybe you face a loved one and it gives you strength or maybe you feel deep down that its just your duty... whatever some people feel that even this isn't enough, they go deeper to a primal animal place where all that is left is a fight or flight instinct... they choose to test themselves in the arena of combat...be it boxing, muay thai or brazillian jiu jitsu they get up they train and they fight. that is definately an extreme test, and definitely not for everyone. it is funny what happens as you fight, i remember my first fight the shock of the first hit to the head was bad, i remember thinking damn that hurt, this is for real... funny then i just went into a surrvival mode and hit back maybe 3 years earlier i might have looked for a way out, this time i stayed and i fought. after the affair, i noticed that everyone wants to be a piece of a fighter may not want to fight but to touch one and say i knew him or her or whatever that seems to be a big thing... wonder what its like for other pro athelete? but for those that don't fight, i must say that it is onlya test and we all test ourselves, we just don't always know it...

been a long time, had some interuptions in trainin, couple injuries and bad timing... funny how i never seem to be 100% these days... always working with a slight injury or some such...still i seem to be doing better and better at what i am doing.learning curve is definitely there just have to master it...i have tried posting some links and film clips here hope i get the hang of it and can start to do this regularly... i do have some interesting stuff in the archives. so your patientce is appreciated and any comments as well

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  Jack Dempsey the "Manassa mauler"

sparing again last nite was sparing yet again,and this time the tricks paid off as did a better conditioned neck.tricks were surprisingly easy to pull off, many times i faked a left kick and my opponet was baited and fell for it, sometimes it worked better than i thought and yet it still proved to be work. had a young dude from the hood in the gym, he hit real hard ,too hard for friendly sparing, got warned and almost asked to leave the ring.of course he wasn't wearing any head gear so i was told body only... he hit hard but only used muscle, so in the end he hit so so ... was too tense and took it too personal. needs better to knock someone out at his rate he will be a second rate fighter at best.although i learned a good strategy, forget your head gear and they will be told only hit the body..that sucked but i learned that it is hard to score on just a certain target but far from impossible.and so gratifying when ya do

tricks, yes the sneaky kind funny you work so hard to perfect your technique only to learn you have to make it wrong to get it right. often when trying to bait or draw a response from an opponent you try to get them motor set, stuck on only one thing and one response to it then randomly break this set with a new twist scoring in the process. often this is harder than doing it right and getting blocked or checked when kicking, you always want to be fast and first never want to clash shins, so when you have to do htis to sell a fake, it is harder than it looks.

Last night was sparring nite yet again...i did 7 rounds of medium paced light contact sparring.Two of them were with my coach,i actually felt good with my performance till i noticed how much he could relax and just play with me hitting nearly at will.he is a nationally ranked thai boxing fighter and a coach for sometime and also about ten years younger than i am but still...In the end i was pleased with my performance, just gotta keep those hands up and remember to move about more.still trying to answer tha age old question how do you figth a bigger guy (i mean much bigger) dude is like 3 inches taller and rather boney. would love to solve this one and a couple other problemss in this physical chess game. maybe i will with patience and hard work.

last night was sparring night, usually this results in a bit of pain, a lot of learning and some heavy breathing. i went in late and had to rush my warm up, i hate this as i feel tigth when i start throwing leather.tonight only 4 men showed up, and so we paired up and switched up for 7 rounds of fun starting with boxing and progressing into thai -style kick boxing.my first opponent was a big asian dude, he is cool and we joke a lot but i haven't seen him in awhile so i correctly assumed his stamina was a bit low and reflexes off.oddly we all compared reach and i was found to have the longest,i'm not that tall only 6'1" but i got a decent reach.this was funny in a foreshadowing kind of way because each person found out that to land a jab, they had to eat a faster one and eat it hard... it was fun all in fun. we all laughed but i did get tagged nicely three times. snapped my head back hard now my neck hurts and i expect it will for a couple of days at least .all in fun. yeah right.my shoulder continues to ache but not too bad just a reminder that it is there and sore.my right elbow also is hyper-extended and i am wearing a tennis elbow brace on it for good measure. also my ankle is still swollen and hurts but i can stand and still kick if i pay attention to fine detail on how i land it.what have i learned from this experiment? that even when hurt, you can adopt and go on if you are careful. also it has to be fun or you will quit.i have seen so many young white kids go into predominantly black gyms and get beat on gain and agian because they chose the wrong trainer for themselves...soon they think it is a racial thing and drop out after all who wants a bloody nose every freaking day? i think this is really just menat to weed out the weaker minded less dedicated kids, but i think after 3 days you belong in a ring as much as a lung cancer patient needs a cigar. just my oppinion , but then again why hurt yourself needlessly? i often wonder why some people come to a ring, and feel they must totally dominate the other person, when i see them hitting hard needlessly i think it must only be for fear because,why else do you need to do that? i mean occasionally going hard is good but all the time just produces injuries that are slow to heal and offers little lesson except perhaps in pain management and first aid.

sore today, hyper-extended my right elbow again... originally did this at work along with the tendonittis in my right shoulder all this from lifting and flipping commercial window in a college dorm so i could attatch clips on the sides. i was working with an old man that didn't have the strenght to control the down motion and he just froze putting 200 pounds all on one arm ,my right. i gotta get this fixed, can't lay off work and baby it when i work out but it just won't get better stretch it and ice it and stretch it some more to no avail...work was interesting today once again two guys got into it... let all that testosterone build and next thing you know, figth.ended up with only verbal attacks and one guy getting fired. this is truly monumental as now my work load increases yet again. joy. tomorrow i climb back into the ring and spar maybe 6 rounds maybe less in addition to the boxing will come the kickboxing i do as well. my neck is still strained from getting it tugged on so no grappling or mma for another week. but i can still box and that makes me happy.

I like to box... plain and simple. I'm not great at it ,but i enjoy it. i like most the quiet in the ring when all the world goes silent and you can hear the whush of a glove missing you by inches.yeah the sound of silence if you will. Anyway i reside in the greater Washington D.C. area and at a late age took up boxing as well as several other types of fighting in a way to answer some questions and as an odd moving meditation if you will. I plan on trying for a fight again by this july...i got almost 5 months to get ready...i know i can be but will i get there?